Okay, by a show of hands, how many of you first learned how to bore sight a rifle and scope by removing the bolt and looking down the barrel? You can put your hands down now. That was how I learned to do it and let me tell you, peeping down the bore of a .22 rifle to line up your scope is not the easiest thing to do.

Before we get too far into this, let’s lay down the parameters. Some people mistakenly believe bore sighting and zeroing are the same, or that bore sighting is all that is required. For our discussion here, establishing a bore sight means a rough alignment of the rifle’s bore with whatever optic you are using. While you will want the elevation setting between the scope and bore to be close, your primary concern is the windage to the left and right.